The environmental geopolitics of allocation: State power and institutional stability in Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna management

Geopolitical contests over oceanic space and resources commonly manifest in inter-state resource management bodies. That ocean spaces and resources defy a territorial conception of the nation-state means that the environmental geopolitics that emerge are shaped by the nature of oceans and oceans resources. In this context, allocation is among the most pressing and contentious tasks that inter-state bodies managing transboundary resources face as they carve up and distribute access to valuable, shared resources. This paper examines the allocation of highly migratory, and highly valuable, Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna to contribute to understanding of state power and institutional stability in transboundary resource management. Drawing on observation of an allocation negotiation and historical allocation patterns, the analysis animates and extends critical property scholarship to develop an environmental geopolitics of allocation. Findings reveal that states form, contest and maintain power by making claims based not only on rights, but also on duties that they perform to the benefit of other states in collective management. Powerful states also make concessions in the allocation process, giving up some historical rights in order to stabilize the multilateral body that enables their dominance in the fishery. Given new and renewed interest in managing shared species, spaces and resources in the oceans and beyond, viewing allocation through the lens of property reveals state power as expressed through a combination of rights and duties between states bound together in management by the materiality of transboundary and mobile natures.     

Othering,governing, and resistance of abject urban animals: Egyptian geese and their right to the city

In this paper, we examine the controversy over the use of urban green spaces and water bodies by Egyptian geese in the German city of Frankfurt am Main as an example of more-than-human political conflicts over the right to an environmentally just city. Specifically, we analyze the media discourse and interviews that we conducted as multispecies go-alongs to identify how othering in media and policy constitutes Egyptian geese legally and discursively as “alien, invasive, and aggressive” as well as “disgusting, polluting, and health-threatening.” This othering constructs Egyptian geese as abject animals and justifies their governing through “geese management” technologies, ranging from monitoring to atmospheric engineering and to killing the birds. While the management objective is to displace the Egyptian geese from urban spaces dedicated for human recreation, these spaces also turn out to be places of animal resistance.     

An overview of Caribbean and Latin-American cultural heritage studies

Abstract

This review analyzes, through three recently published books that talk about cultural heritage in Latin America, how the Cultural Heritage Studies have allowed us to understand the current situation in the region characterized by the growing tendency to promote declarations of heritage as part of a plan for the use of culture as a resource for sustainable development. Likewise, those books analyze how responses from local communities are generated to hegemonic definitions of heritage, which indicates that cultural heritage in Latin America is not something given but something in constant construction and dispute.     

Chinese environmental activism and the environmental politics of rumors

Rumors are an important yet poorly understood dynamic in environmental politics, particularly regarding their role in environmental activism. Drawing on theories of rumors, environmental information governance, and environmental activism, we analyzed the eco-politics of rumors in a Chinese village that experienced rumor-fueled protests against the construction and operation of a limestone quarry. We make three arguments regarding the condition, control, and content of rumors. First, poor environmental information governance, driven by a development-first and prejudice-rich official narrative and the strategic behaviors of blame and accountability avoidance, provides an important condition for rumor formulation and circulation. Second, the generation and circulation of rumors can be understood as a collective sense-making process driven by the informal communication between external and internal sources of information. The ephemeral nature of communication and group sanctions on government supporters make it difficult for authorities to control rumors. Third, by conceptualizing rumors as information warfare against official narratives, we show that rumors can foster a sense of collective urgency, reframe a land-right protest into an environmental protest that is politically more likely to succeed, and undermine public trust in local authorities. The findings suggest that rumors are an important part of environmental politics in China because of their role in environmental activism.     

Long-term environmental change and geographical patterns of violence in Darfur, 2003–2005

This paper investigates spatial associations between environmental change and violence in Darfur. Long-term variations in the geographical distribution of water and vegetative resources can foster migration from areas with decreasing levels of resource availability to areas with increasing levels. Rising ethnic diversity and resource competition can, in turn, escalate the risk of violence in areas of high in-migration. This paper employs a multimethod approach to investigate this hypothesis. Qualitative evidence is used to demonstrate the plausibility of the argument for the case of Darfur. The quantitative analysis is based on information retrieved from satellite imagery on long-term vegetation change and the spatial distribution of attacks on villages in the early phase of the civil war (2003–2005). The findings indicate that violence has been more likely and intense in areas that experienced increasing availability of water and vegetative resources during the 20 years prior to the civil war.     

基于环境监测的南京上坊孙吴墓环境风险评估

半地下砖石建筑遗产在发掘后，温度、含水量等环境条件的波动关联了包括干缩开裂、盐析、微生物生长等在内的诸多病害，使得半地下砖石建筑遗产加速劣化的风险上升，不利于文物价值的有效保护。为明确半地下砖石建筑遗址的依存环境与本体病害特征之间的关联性，本研究以南京上坊孙吴墓为研究对象，进行了现场调研测绘与病害勘察，并对上坊孙吴墓进行了为期一年的室内外环境监测，获取了室外气候、保护大棚内及各墓室内的温湿度等参数，分析了不同病害与依存环境的关联性，并基于环境监测数据评估了墓室内不同区域对应的本体材料劣化风险等级。结果表明，相比于前墓室，覆顶不存的后墓室会表现出更复杂的病害特征，即砖石类遗址在长期的环境波动状态下可能会比在较稳定的高湿环境中面临更高的保存风险。研究结果可为上坊孙吴墓以及同类型半地下砖石建筑遗址保护措施的科学制定提供有价值的参考。